Last night, during a long gaming session, my PC just stopped displaying on my monitors, even though the lights and fans were still running. I tried resetting the CMOS and reseating the RAM, but it didn't help. This morning, I swapped out RAM sticks and reset the CMOS again, yet it still won't boot. The red debug LED on my motherboard indicates there's a CPU problem. I'm planning to grab some isopropyl alcohol to clean and reapply the thermal paste after reseating the CPU. If that doesn't work, what should I do? It's strange for a system that worked flawlessly for several weeks to just fail like this. Specs include a 9800x3d CPU, RTX 5080 GPU, and 32 GB of G.Skill 6000MHz RAM. Update: After applying new thermal paste, there's still a red CPU LED on the motherboard. I'm really at a loss here.
2 Answers
Your CPU might be overheating, especially if the thermal paste wasn't applied evenly. Also, 6000MHz DDR5 RAM can sometimes cause stability issues, though it isn't guaranteed. Keep an eye on those temps!
I’d check the CPU and motherboard connectors for any signs of burn marks. It seems like you might be dealing with a faulty 9800x3d, which could have been damaged if you never updated the BIOS. Sorry to hear about the trouble!
I checked and found no burn marks. Just going to clean it with alcohol before I try anything else.
Just got back from Microcenter; turns out the CPU was fried! They tested it with another one and it worked perfectly. At least I could return the damaged one, so I'm back up and running!
I was using Afterburner to monitor temps, and it never went above 61 degrees while streaming.